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Flushing West Neighborhood Planning Study:
History and Context
Flushing West Neighborhood Study Area
The comprehensive Flushing West Neighborhood
Study Area is located in Queens Community
District 7. It encompasses Flushing’s retail core,
which is centered at the intersection of Roosevelt
Avenue and Main Street and is bound by 35th
Avenue to the north, Union Street to the west,
Sanford Avenue to the south and the Van Wyck
Expressway/Flushing Creek to the west. Within
the larger neighborhood study area, the 11-block
Flushing West zoning study area is located in the
western portion of Downtown Flushing, bounded by
Northern Boulevard to the north, 40th Road to the
south, Prince Street to the east and the Van Wyck
Expressway and Flushing Creek to the west.
Downtown Flushing has a vibrant mix of office,
retail, residential and institutional uses. A wide
range of commercial uses - including small offices,
service-providing businesses, retail goods stores,
restaurants and groceries and produce markets
- densely line extensive portions of the area’s
main thoroughfares and side streets. The area
is well-served by two transit lines, including the
terminal station of the No. 7 subway line, the Long
Island Railroad’s Flushing-Main Street Station and
numerous MTA/NYCT bus lines.
The Flushing West study area is less than two miles
east of LaGuardia Airport, and Downtown Flushing
lies underneath the airport’s primary approach
path. John F. Kennedy International Airport is
located about eight miles to the south.
Flushing West Neighborhood Planning Study: History and Context
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History
Flushing has a rich history. From its time of Dutch
settlement to the present, Flushing continues to be
a hub of activity and change.
The settlement was originally named Vlissingen
and chartered by the Dutch in 1645 on land
acquired from the Matinecoc Indians, an Algonquin
tribe that had settled in much of present-day
eastern Queens. In 1657, its settlers protested
Governor Peter Stuyvesant’s ban on all religious
practices except those of the official Dutch Reform
Church, and signed a document called the Flushing
Remonstrance calling for religious freedom. This
document became the basis for the notion of
freedom of religion expressed in the Bill of Rights.
As its commercial activity increased, warehouse
and industrial uses occupied the waterfront by
the Flushing Creek. Constructed during the mid1920s by the W&J Sloane furniture company,
the T-shaped concrete-clad building topped by a
classical clock tower and cupola, now occupied
as a warehouse by U-Haul, remains a prominent
structure in this portion of Flushing.
Today downtown Flushing continues to be a
hub of activity and change. An extensive and
detailed history of Flushing, including significant
landmarked buildings, the pursuit of religious
freedom and local links to the Underground
Railroad, can be found in the Flushing Library.
The town of Flushing was primarily a rural farming
settlement for much of eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, known for thriving commercial tree and
plant nurseries, including the Prince, Bloodgood
and Parsons nurseries. In 1857, three years
after a railroad was run between Hunter’s Point
and Flushing, the town had begun to grow and its
boundaries were expanded.
Its growth accelerated in the twentieth century,
spurred by the completion in 1909 of the
Queensboro Bridge, and the introduction of rail
road service to Manhattan in 1910 by the Long
Island Rail Road Port Washington Branch. In 1928
the New York City Subway’s IRT Flushing Line
began service from Main Street and Roosevelt
Avenue. Flushing grew into a suburban-style town
throughout the first half of this last century and its
commercial heart was located along Main Street
terminating at Northern Boulevard and anchored
by the palatial former RKO Keith’s movie theater.
The Flushing Waterfront, 1927 (NY Public Library)
Flushing West Neighborhood Planning Study: History and Context
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Land Use and Zoning
The current zoning in the Flushing West Zoning
study area is comprised of C4-2, M1-1 and M3-1
districts. The C4-2 zoning allows for a broad range
of commercial, residential, and community facility
uses. In the M1-1 and M3-1 zoning districts,
commercial and industrial uses are allowed, but no
residential uses are permitted. The zoning study
area’s 118 tax lots encompass approximately 47
acres, and primarily contain low-rise commercial
and light industrial structures.
In the past, residential uses were less common
within the study area, but in recent years several
new 6- to 12-story residential buildings with ground
floor retail uses have been built along the west side
of Prince Street on the edge of the study area as
allowed by the current C4-2 zoning.
Recent development activity in the rezoning study
area includes a variety of new hotels, commercial
offices and market-rate residential buildings as
allowed under existing C4-2 zoning.
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Past Planning Efforts
Environmental Context
Over the last two decades, New York City agencies,
including the Department of City Planning, the
New York City Economic Development Corporation
(EDC), and the New York City Department
of Transportation (DOT), in concert with the
community, have carried out a number of studies
and actions aimed at improving Downtown
Flushing. These studies and resultant actions
include the creation of Downtown Flushing
Planning Framework in 1993, the implementation
of a Waterfront Access Plan (WAP) and a rezoning
of Downtown Flushing in 1998, and creation of
the Downtown Flushing Development Framework
in 2004 - a comprehensive land use planning
strategy for the future growth and sustainability of
the area. The 1998 rezoning of Downtown Flushing
and WAP implementation resulted in areas west
of Prince Street to the Flushing River rezoned
from manufacturing zones to a commercial
district, and requirements for redevelopment of
waterfront sites to provide public access. The
2004 Downtown Flushing Development Framework
identified additional issues related to the area’s
development quality and zoning, including a
vision for redevelopment of the Municipal Lot 1
site that provided a town square-like open space.
The Flushing West Brownfield Opportunity Area
(BOA) is roughly bounded by Northern Boulevard
to the north, Roosevelt Avenue to the south, Prince
Street to the east and the Van Wyck Expressway
and Flushing Creek to the west. BOAs are
neighborhoods or areas affected by brownfields
- vacant or underutilized property where
contamination or perceived contamination has
impeded investment and redevelopment. Through
the BOA Program, funded by the State, brownfields
are transformed from liabilities to community
assets that generate businesses, jobs and revenue
for local economies and provide new housing and
public amenities.
Included in the BOA and the Study’s goal to provide
a well-defined waterfront access and public space
amenity plan, clean-up of the Flushing Creek is a
high priority. The section of Flushing Creek just to
the north of the Study Area is lined on both sides
by industrial uses, including concrete plants and
asphalt manufacturers. Construction along the
eastern side of the creek within the Study Area has
been limited and the shoreline is not accessible to
the public. Wetlands lie along the western side of
the creek. As the lead agency on efforts to clean
up the Creek, the Department of Environmental
Protection’s is currently seeking DEC’s approval for
a Long-Term Control Plan for the Creek.
Flushing West Neighborhood Planning Study: History and Context
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Demographics
Demographic Analysis
In order to study the area’s demographics, four
Census tracts were identified: tracts 849, 853,
869 and 871. These four Census tracts cover
both the Flushing West Zoning Study Area and the
Downtown Flushing Neighborhood Context Area
(see Figure 1).*
Race/Ethnicity
The Flushing West Study Area currently has
a population of 16,244 people who live in
approximately 6,469 housing units. Although the
population is a small portion of the roughly 2.2
million residents in Queens County, it is one of
the densest neighborhoods. The area is a multicultural and multi-lingual immigrant hub, with a
significantly large Asian population (see Figure 2) –
71.1 percent, which is about three times that of the
county overall. The largest ethnic group is Chinese
(see Figure 3); the Chinese-immigrant population
of Flushing surpassed Manhattan’s Chinatown
years ago. Compared to the county and city overall,
a high percent of the area’s residents do not have
U.S. citizenship (see Figure 4).
POPULATION BY RACE
Figure 1
Figure 2
U.S. CITIZENSHIP
Figure 4
POPULATION BY ETHNICITY
Figure 3
*Demographic data sourced from U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2009-2013 5-year estimates.
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Demographics
Income/Employment
Although the area’s percent of employed workforce
is comparable to the county and city overall (56.5
percent; 58.1 percent; 56.6 percent, respectively),
its median household income is much lower:
$34,428 (see Figure 5). The highest share of
households in Flushing West are in the $15,000
- $25,000 income bracket (19.2 percent), while
the highest share of households in the county
and city overall are in the $50,000 - $74,000
income bracket (18.1 percent and 15.7 percent,
respectively. See Figure 6).
High employment levels combined with a low
median household income indicate that the
majority of the workforce are employed in lowpaying jobs. Figure 7 depicts the dominant type
of employment as service-sector jobs (35.7
percent), which can include retail, food service,
beauty service, etc. These services are prominently
seen lining major commercial corridors such as
Roosevelt Avenue, Union Street and Main Street,
and are prime destinations for the area’s visitors.
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME
Figure 5
INCOME BRACKETS (% of households)
TYPES OF EMPLOYMENT
Figure 7
Figure 6
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Demographics
Travel Behavior
68 percent of households in the area are
zero-vehicle households, while the majority of
households in the county overall have one or more
vehicles (62.6 percent, see Figure 8), showing a
stark contract in car ownership. Meanwhile, the
most common mode of transportation to work is
public transit, which is comparable to the county
and city overall (52.3 percent; 51.7 percent; 55.9
percent, respectively. See Figure 9.). Notably, the
percent of workers walking to work is higher in
Flushing West (20.8 percent) than the county and
city, which indicates a portion of the population
who work in the same neighborhood they live in.
With a low vehicle ownership rate, the data shows
that the area is highly dependent on utilizing public
transit and walking to get to where they need to go.
VEHICLE OWNERSHIP
Figure 8
COMMUTE MODE TO WORK
Figure 9
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